Pants topper and improved bag and mounting thereof



PANTS TQPPER AND IMPROVED BAG AND MOUNTING THEREOF.

Fil d May 22, 1969 N. A. BUCKLEY Jui'y 28, 1970 2 Sheets-sheaf 1 HII L July 28, 1970' N. A. BUCKLEY PANTS TOPPER AND IMPROVED BAG AND MOUNTING THEREOF Filed May 22, 1969 heat 2 Sheets-S dig Jill/wafer Worm 4 %z United States Patent ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A pants topper having a buck and waist expander covered by a porous bag and over which a pair of pants to be finished is dressed, the bag including side sections having vents therein located adjacent the side edges of the buck operable to permit air and/ or steam within the bag,

to escape to inside the pants dressed over the bag, and bag collapsing structure supported by the waist expander in a manner to swing freely toward the buck but being restrained from swinging away from the buck whereupon retracting movement of the waist expander simultaneously collapses the bag.

A commercial pants topper generally has a buck and a waist expander enclosed within a bag and over which the open waist section of a pair of pants can be dressed. Steam and air are discharged into the bag which consequently inflates and expands the pants to a relatively wrinkle-free condition. The bag is made of a porous mate rial so that the steam and air pass through the bag and to the pants. However, little steam and air actually penetrate to the lap area of the pants since the buck separates this area from the interior of the bag. This drawback is compounded since lap pleats on the certain pants form a multiple thickness gathering of material which really should be exposed to more, not less, steam and air for adequately conditioning and drying.

The waist expander conventionally moves between an expanded position holding the dressed pants open and a retracted position close adjacent the buck such that the pants can be dressed on or removed from the topper. A problem experienced in existing toppers is the slow collapsing of this inflated bag after the finishing cycle which hinders the removal of pants from and dressing of pants on the topper.

This invention provides for an improved topper bag construction and means for collapsing the bag after the finishing cycle.

Regarding the bag construction, vents in the bag located adjacent the side edges of the buck direct steam and air from within the bag to inside the pants and particularly to the lap and pocket areas of the pants. Also, since the dressed pants normally hang from the topper with the legs and cuffs open, steam within the interior of the pants eventually migrates down the legs and spills out as visible steam from the open cufi's. This can be used by the operator as one signal to determine when sufiicient steaming has occurred to terminate a manual steam cycle or set an automatic steam cycle.

The bag collapsing structure is pivoted at its upper end to the waist expander and is connected at its lower end to the bag. The pivot connection limits the extent the collapsing structure can swing in the direction away from the buck, so that upon the waist expander being moved to its contracted position the structure is restrained and the bag is simultaneously collapsed.

Accordingly, an object of this invention is to provide an improved pants topper bag construction having vents located in the bag sides adjacent the side edges of the topper buck which thereby directly communicates the Patented July 28, 1970 ice interior of the big to the interior of the pants dressed over the bag.

Another object of this invention is to provide improved means for collapsing the bag simultaneously with and upon the topper *waist expander being moved from its expanded position to its retracted position, whereat pants can be removed from and/or dressed on the buck.

These and other objects will be more fully understood after referring to the following specification and accompanying drawings forming a part thereof, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a pants topper having a preferred embodiment of the subject bag and bag collapsing means, and showing in phantom view a pair of pants typically dressed on the topper;

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal section view of the topper of FIG. 1, except showing the waist expander and bag in the contracted position suitable for dressing pants on or removing pants from the topper;

FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 2, except showing the waist expander and bag in the expanded position;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view as seen generally from the two-plane reference according to line 44 in FIG. 3, having the division generally along the longitudinal center of FIG. 4;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view as seen generally from line 55 of FIG. 3; and

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the bag disclosed herein.

Referring to FIG. 1 a topper 10 is shown which includes a frame having rear post 12 and cross arm 14, and a buck 16 depends from the outboard end of the arm 14. The buck has a perforated metal frame member 18 (FIG. 2) curved slightly convex in a horizontal plane similar to the normal rounded contour of a human. A porous padding 20 covers the front of the frame 18 and a bag 22 fits over the padding and buck. An inlet 25 is formed within the contour of the buck 16, and bag top opening 27 (FIG. 6) fits over the buck and has a peripheral draw string 26 for closing the bag around the inlet. The draw string and bag are confined in a channel 28' across the rear edge of the buck adjacent the inlet 25.

A waist expander 32 guided in front to rear channel 36 (FIG. 5) underlying arm plate 30 is moved by power cylinder 34 between a contracted position adjacent the buck (FIG. 2) and an expanded position spaced more remotely from the buck (FIG. 3). The waist expander includes a forwardly curved plate 38 which pivots on bolt or pin 40 formed integrally with a slide element 41 guided in the channel 36. Power cylinder rod 43 is connected to this slide element 41. The bag 22 has an eyelet 42 through which the pin 40 fits for fixing that portion of the bag securely to the expander.

Formed within frame arm 14 are wall structures 30 and 44 that define an air passage 46, a heat exchanger '48 is in the passage, and a blower 50* (FIG. 1) is mounted in the arm with its outlet sealed to the passage. An air bafile 52 is hinged to the wall 44, which bafile in the closed position (FIG. 2) precludes migration of steam and/or the like from inlet 25 back to the blower and which in the opened position (FIG. 3) permits the flow of air from the blower through the inlet 25 for discharge into the bag. A steam nozzle 54 located rearwardly of the buck within the bag is connected by pipe 56 to a source of steam for discharging steam into the bag. The buck also is heated by steam coils 58 held close against the frame 18.

Pleater plates 60 are pivotally supported by suitable linkage means 62 tothe frame arm 14 to swing between a raised position (FIG. 1) spaced from the buck and a pressing position (FIGS. 3 and 4) engaging the lap area of pants dressed on the topper. Suitable means such as a power cylinder (not shown) is typically provided for moving the plates 60 between the positions desired.

Referring now specifically to the details of the bag construction (FIG. 6), front face is sized to correspond generally to the front face of the buck 16, and a marginal flap 72 secured thereto is wrapped around the lower contours of the buck. A draw string 74 located within the marginal flap 72 is trained over lugs 76 and 78 supported rearwardly of the buck to hold the bag front face 70 tightly against the buck. Connected to the marginal edges of the front lap section 70 are respective side sections 80 and bottom sections 82, and these sections extend rearwardly of the front section at generally right angles in the expanded position. A top section 84 is connected at the upper extremities of the side sections 80 which closes the bag generally. A weight is secured within the bag top section 84 to weight down and collapse the top section as the expander is contracted (FIG. 2). A zipper 92 (FIG. 1) closing an access opening in the bag side wall helps provide access to the interior of the bag for securing the same on the buck. The crotch seam 94 of the bag between the rearward side and bottom sections is slit or open to permit the dressing of varying sizes and styles of pants on the buck, the pants crotch seam fitting into the bag to whatever extent is necessary.

Each bag side wall 80 has an open mesh vent 98 which extends vertically adjacent the side edges of the buck 16 (FIG. 4). Each vent 98 extends slightly less vertically than the vertical extent of the pleater plate 60, and the upper edge of the vent preferably is horizontally aligned with the top edge of the pleater plate when the plate is engaging the buck (FIG. 3). Steam and/ or air in the bag thus escapes through the vents directly to within the pants dressed on the buck, and specifically to the pleated or unpleated lap area of the pants. Even though steam discharge into the bag normally inflates the bag, until the bag is fully inflated against the pants the normal steam and air migration other than through the pants is downwardly and out the open pants legs to subject all of the lap, seat and pocket areas of the pants directly to the vent discharge. This is particularly useful for conditioning the lap pleats with an initial steaming cycle before any air discharge and before the pleater plates are lowered against the buck. The bag should be sufficiently large when fully inflated to fill the pants dressed over the bag.

Regarding the bag collapsing structure 100, an elongated element 102 is pivoted at its center to the waist expander 32 and has its opposite ends looped and secured to the bag by tie strings 103. The socket 105 for pivoting the element 102 to the expander is bent over on itself and supported on the expander plate with aligned holes therein receiving the pin 40. This pivot socket permits unrestrained forwardly swinging of the element toward the buck. Each element leg has an intermediate bend 107 that engages the transverse plate 38 (FIG. 2) to limit rearward swinging to an orientation where the bag tie string connection is approximately aligned vertically under the expander but is yet spaced rearwardly of the buck. The lower section 108 of the leg below the intermediate bend 107 slopes forwardly and downwardly toward the buck and thus generally complements the normal tapering contour of fully expanded pants where the seat is slightly smaller than the Waist.

The collapsing structure is assembled and held in place by means of a wing nut 110 threaded onto the lower end of the pin 40. Each wing of the nut is sutficiently extended to interfere with the expander plate 38 when the latter abuts the nut (as shown) to preclude nut rotation which serves as an antiloosening means. The nut can be rotated to the desired position along the pin by lifting the expander plate off the nut to where the wing extensions clear the lower edge of the plate.

As was mentioned earlier, a damper 52 normally precludes the back flow of fluid within the bag past the heat exchanger to the blower. In this regard, the vents 98 in the bag readily provide for the discharge of air confined in the bag to assist in the rapid collapsing of the bag.

What is claimed is:

1. In a pants topper having a buck and a waist expander, and a bag over the buck and expander, whereby pants can be dressed over the bag when the expander is in its contracted position and can be stretched and held open at the waist when the expander is in its expanded position, and means for discharging steam and/or air within the bag which inflates against the inside of the pants, the combination of the bag having a front section disposed flush against the front of the buck, and top, side and bottom sections rearwardly of and generally enclosing the buck; means securing the forward portion of the bag top section relative to the buck and means securing the rearward portion of the bag top section relative to the expander; and the bag side sections having vents which are spaced laterally of the buck operable to communicate the bag interior with the interior of pants dressed over the bag, whereby steam and/or air within the bag inflates the bag against the pants and also escapes through the vents directly to the interior of the pants.

2. A pants topper combination according to claim 1, wherein the bag vents are elongated vertically and are disposed immediately adjacent the side edges of the buck for providing steam and/ or air discharge against the lap area of the pants.

3. A pants topper combination according to claim 2, further including pleater plates operatively carried by the topper to move between a retracted position spaced from the buck and a pressing position restrained against the buck, and wherein the vents extend a distance vertically less than the vertical extent of the pleater plates when in the pressing position.

4. A pants topper combination according to claim 3, wherein the bag vents are located between the vertical extent of the pleater plates when in the pressing position but are slightly closer to the upper edge of the extent than the lower edge of the extent.

5. A pants topper combination according to claim 1, further including a bag collapsing member, and means securing the lower end of the bag collapsing member to the bag at the lower end of the rearward side section and means pivotally connecting the upper end of the bag collapsing member to the waist expander; and means to limit rearward pivotal movement of the bag collapsing member relative to the waist expander, whereby forward movement of the expander to its contracted position simultaneously collapses the bag.

6. A topper combination according to claim 1, wherein the waist expander includes track means extended in the direction toward and away from the rear of the buck, a slide element received in the track means and having a depending pin, an expander plate in the bag supported on the pin, a bracket secured relative to the pin and defining a horizontal socket, a bag collapsing member pivotally mounted within the socket and connected to the bag, and the bag collapsing member being restrained against rearward swinging relative to the waist expander by engagement against the expander plate so that forward movement of the expander to its contracted position simultaneously collapses the bag.

7. A pants topper combination according to claim 6, wherein the pin is threaded and the expander plate extends downwardly past the lower end of the pin, and a wing nut threaded on the pin and supporting the expander plate, the nut having wings that engage the expander plate when the plate is normally supported by the nut to serve as antiloosening means for the nut but where the plate can be lifted off the nut to permit the nut to be threaded onto the pin.

8. In a pants topper having a buck and a waist expander, and a bag over the buck and expander, whereby pants can be dressed over the bag when the expander is in its contracted position and can be stretched and held open at the waist when the expander is in its expanded position, and means for discharging steam and/or air within the bag which inflates against the inside of the pants, the combination of the bag having vents which are elongated vertically and are disposed immediately adjacent the side edges of the buck operable to communicate the bag interior with the interior of pants dressed over the bag, whereby steam and/or air within the bag escapes through the vents directly to the interior of the pants, a bag collapsing member pivotally carried by the expander and secured at its lower end to the bag, and means to limit pivotal movement of the bag collapsing member relative to the expander in the direction away from the buck, whereby forward movement of the expander to its contracted position simultaneously collapses the bag.

9. A pants topper combination according to claim 8, wherein the means for discharging air within the bag includes a blower and a damper which when closed pre- References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,055,564 9/1962 Forse 223-73 3,383,703 5/1968 Schlemon 22373 3,421,668 1/1969 Hoisve et al. 22373 MERVIN STEIN, Primary Examiner G. V. LARKIN, Assistant Examiner 

